Government advisers call for CO2 price / Tamed EU car emissions limits
Germany鈥檚 economic experts鈥� council
The German economic experts鈥� council (Wirtschaftsweise) has called for the introduction of a uniform price on carbon emissions that covers the transport and energy sector as well as individual households. In its annual report, the council of five economic advisors to the German government says a floor price on CO2 emissions well above the current price level of the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) is 鈥渇avourable even if it can only be introduced on the national level鈥�. The council stops short of defining an appropriate price level and says the German government should 鈥渄o more than up until now鈥� to strengthen the ETS, which should 鈥渃onsistently include all emitters and sectors of final energy consumption鈥�. A uniform price on emissions in all sectors would 鈥渆nsure that the electricity, transport and heating sectors jointly conrtribute to emissions reduction鈥�.
Read the council鈥檚 full report in German and a press release in English .
See the 威力彩玩法 article German carbon tax most efficient was to meet climate goals 鈥� study for more information.
S眉ddeutsche Zeitung
A concerted lobbying effort by German carmakers was crucial in watering down new EU car fleet emission targets for the period after 2021, reports S眉ddeutsche Zeitung. 鈥淚t seems a call from Germany鈥檚 chief car lobbyist, [car industry association VDA head] Matthias Wissmann, to [EU commission President] Jean-Claude Juncker鈥檚 cabinet chief Martin Selmayr, was crowned by success. Selmayr denies a connection. German EU commissioner G眉nther Oettinger has also acted in the interest of the car industry, says the article. 鈥淎s if Dieselgate had never happened, Volkswagen in particular led a campaign against stricter environmental laws.鈥� According to a , the EU commission will propose today CO2 reduction targets for new cars of 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2021.
Read the SZ article in German .
Find plenty of background in the 威力彩玩法 dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.
Please note: The 威力彩玩法 will publish an article on this topic later today.
Frankfurter Rundschau
The German Green Party鈥檚 new-found readiness to compromise on a coal exit and a ban on combustion engines by 2030 might give the impression that the party is caving in to pressure from its negotiating partners in the Jamaica coalition talks but this view misunderstands strategic considerations by the Green party leadership, Markus Decker writes in an opinion piece for the Frankfurter Rundschau. It was 鈥渢actically smart鈥� of the Greens to avoid being the odd one out should the talks with the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the pro-business FDP fail to form a new government coalition. And, from a climate protection perspective, it is not clinging to election slogans that matters but concrete agreements on coal power, transport policy and agriculture, Decker argues. 鈥�If these fail to materialise, the Greens can鈥檛 do Jamaica. New elections would be unavoidable鈥�.
Read the opinion piece in German .
See the 威力彩玩法 article Greens ready to make climate policy concession in coalition talks for background.
Max B枚gl Wind
German wind power company Max B枚gl Wind has built the world鈥檚 tallest wind power turbine near the southern German city of Stuttgart. In a press release, the company says the turbine, with a hub height of 178 metres and a total height of over 246 metres, was 鈥渟etting new standards鈥� for the energy transition. The turbine, manufactured by GE, has a capacity of 3.4 megawatts and rests on a 40 metre-high water battery that can store energy for later use. It will start feeding power into the grid by 2018.
See the press release in German and an article in English .
For background, see the 威力彩玩法 dossier Onshore wind power in Germany.
Federal Statistics Office
The share of renewables in Germany鈥檚 gross final energy consumption has increased from 3.7 percent in 2000 to 14.6 percent in 2016, the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) announced. Most of this (7.2 percentage points) was achieved through renewable energy deployment from 2000 to 2010, despite the common notion that Germany鈥檚 energy transition only started in 2011, Destatis writes.
Read the press release in German .
See the 威力彩玩法 factsheet Germany鈥檚 energy consumption and power mix in charts for more information.
Handelsblatt Global
Germany should use its experience from the energy transition, the ambitious transformation away from fossil fuels towards renewables, to advance digitalisation, American economist and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin has told Handelsblatt Global in an interview. 鈥淕ermany has the problem that smart meters have been frowned upon as a 鈥淏ig Brother鈥� in your house because it collects data. The advantages of these systems need to be explained a lot better,鈥� Rifkin said.
Read the interview in English .
See the 威力彩玩法 dossier The digitalization of the Energiewende for background.
Reuters
German utility E.ON said retail profits fell by more than a third in the first nine months, according to a Reuters report. E.ON, currently in the process of selling its remaining stake in fossil spin-off Uniper to Finland鈥檚 Fortum, said it is hammering out a new growth strategy which it plans to present along with full-year results in March.
Read the Reuters report in English and find the E.ON press release in English .
For background, check out the 威力彩玩法 dossier Utilities and the energy transition.
Zeit Online
Renewable energy sources are booming in Germany as much as anywhere else but the country鈥檚 simultaneous rise in coal use and carbon emissions nevertheless make it 鈥渁 dangerous role model鈥� for countries setting out to emulate the German energy transition, Jan Steckel and Felix Creutzig from the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) write in a guest article for Zeit Online. 鈥�Falling costs for renewables alone will not suffice to end coal-fired power production鈥� and therefore bring about the much needed reduction of CO2 emissions, the authors say. This is because capital costs for renewable energy sources, such as risk insurances and interest rates, remain high and outweigh the low running costs for many investors, they argue. 鈥淎dditional political tools鈥�, such as a tax-based CO2 floor price, a reformed emissions trading system and affordable loan and security schemes are needed to encourage investors, particularly in emerging economies, to put their money into renewables rather than investing in new coal plants, they say.
Read the article in German .
See the 威力彩玩法 dossier The energy transition and climate change for background.
Der Tagesspiegel
Global warming is a phenomenon whose nature makes it very unattractive for the fast-paced news business, Dagmar Dehmer writes in Der Tagesspiegel. 鈥淭he events are complex and non-linear鈥�, Dehmer says, arguing that climate change as a news event is difficult to handle as it 鈥渞equires immediate political action that might bear results only decades from now鈥�. A result of these difficulties is that journalists reporting on the phenomenon often take recourse to dramatic weather events to demonstrate the dangers of global warming, leading to an oversupply of catastrophes for news consumers that normalises disasters and also allows to use local or short-term factors for explaining them rather than acknowledging the underlying change in climate patterns, she argues.
Read the article in German .
